The administrators of the Adinoyi Onukaba-Ojo Endowment Fund have expressed appreciation to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, for honouring his pledge to support the education of members of the young family left behind by his former aide, Dr. Adinoyi Onukaba Ojo.
Chairman of the Endowment Fund and former Special Assistant to President Olusegun Obasanjo, Chief Tunde Olusunle, who conveyed the appreciation on behalf of friends and family of the late journalist and public administration yesterday, revealed that the late Ojo’s eldest son, Asuku Oshione, had been awarded scholarship by Atiku Abubakar, in fulfillment of his promise not to abandon the family of his departed aide.
Onukaba Ojo died in a motor accident near Akure, on his return from activities commemorating the 80th birthday of former President Obasanjo early March 2017.
Asuku Oshione Onukaba received a full scholarship to study Software Engineering at the American University of Nigeria, Yola, an institution founded by the Waziri Adamawa.
Olusunle commended Atiku for his compassion and for living up to his word. The gesture, he pointed out, further cements Atiku’s popular reputation as a man of honour whose word is his bond and who does not abandon his friends and associates in their hour of need.
“We as members of the Adinoyi Onukaba Ojo Endowment Fund consider this gesture of Alhaji Atiku’s as the ‘purest manifestation of loyalty and the ultimate test of faithfulness’. It also further attests to Atiku’s consummate commitment to literacy and provision of equal opportunities to all, irrespective of religious, ethnic or social background.
“As friends and associates of Dr. Onukaba, we deeply appreciate the legacy His Excellency Atiku Abubakar is leaving behind. It takes a man of uncommon courage, character, and self-dignity to make this level of commitment without as much as being reminded. The Waziri has reminded our generation of the wisdom in the maxim that the truest test of character is doing good to another human being from whom you expect no favours”.
It would be recalled that apart from the financial support he immediately approved and released to Onukaba’s family after his death in 2017, the Waziri had pledged to underwrite the bills for anyone of the deceased’s children who gained admissions into AUN.
Asuku will commence his freshman orientation at the prestigious American University early next week as he begins the next important stage in life. His late father was an accomplished journalist who served meritoriously as Managing Director of the Daily Times of Nigeria and Senior Special Assistant to Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Media and Publicity. He was also a university lecturer and earned a doctorate in Performance Studies from New York.
Asuku Onukaba has, however, chosen a different career path from his father’s. AUN’s flagship program, Software Engineering, is taught by a renowned global faculty with a mix of academic and industry experience, and offers rich concentrations in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning; Algorithms and Complexity; Networks and Distributed Computing with possible electives in Big Data Analytics, FINTECH and Block Chains, Information Systems and Digital Marketing.
